My “positive” thoughts on Super Bowl LVIII

I already know the one or two people reading this who pay any attention to my blog will immediately say “I’m just being Darth Stumpo…” or “That’s just Darth Stumpo…” with this commentary on what I what I thought of Super Bowl LVIII.

Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if some of you picture me as Jack Torrance from “The Shining” (1980) sitting at my desk at the Overlook Hotel in Colorado. Instead of my using a typewriter I’m on the keyboard on a computer attempting to bang out this week’s latest blog. Or so the one running my blog from the back end might think. Imagine the horror on her face when she learns all I typed out on two pages of the MS word document was “All work and no play makes Darth Stumpo a dull boy!”

Truth is though I did have Super Bowl 58 playing on the flatscreen I wasn’t paying much attention. I was harder pressed in getting my online class assignments that were coming due on Monday (I’m still behind on two courses) than I was caring about whatever was happening at Allegiant Stadium in Paradise, Nevada that evening.

That’s not to say I didn’t look up during commercial breaks which depended on the Hollywood icon I heard appearing. There were a few. Arnold Schwarzenegger couldn’t pronounce “neighbor.” Jennifer Aniston suffered a President Biden memory lapse. Tina Fey promoted booking.com only to see Glenn Close on a horse. Matt Damon (“Sometimes it’s really hard to be your friend, man”) was embarrassed being included with pal Ben Affleck’s ‘The Dunkings’ promoting Dunkin’ Donuts.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the devilishly eye-catching ad created by American Values 2024 promoting independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s run for president. The ad made me feel like this was 1960 all over again when John F. Kennedy ran for president. RFK Jr. later apologized for the $7 million ad saying it was not approved by his campaign.



Just when I thought things couldn’t generate any more talk then came the latest Jesus He Gets Us ad titled “He washed feet” which showed mostly “white” people washing the feet of minorities and members of the same sex.

The ad made me say to myself maybe they should have just featured dominant women and/or men dressed in leather S/M (sadism and masochism) garb, sporting 5-inch stiletto boots and heels with submissives naked on leashes kneeling before their mistresses and masters doing you know what with their tongues. Now just imagine the uproar such an ad would have done let alone the revenue it’d generate! Or just imagine the backlash I’m going to get writing this which will be less than zero!

I suppose somewhere during all these ads I could have taken actors Mark Wahlberg and Jonathan Roumie’s advice and say “God, we take this moment to give You thanks.”

I didn’t.

Then there’s the upcoming movie trailers, none of which, to quote Judd Nelson’s rebellious high school character in “The Breakfast Club” (1985) pumped “my Gnads.”

I only looked up from my computer once and that was when the trailer for “Wicked” aired. I noted how “wokeism” /political correctness struck its ugly head again with the casting of the two leads Cynthia Erivo, a black actress, as the bad witch Elphaba and Ariana Grande, an Italian American singer as the good witch Galinda versus how those women characters were cast in the long running Broadway play (the lead women characters were played by Idina Menzel and Kristen Chenowith).



And before you pull your liberal baiting race card out of your ass accusing me of being racist, it’s not the actresses skin color/nationalities I’m questioning. It’s the casting choices. Founding Father Alexander Hamilton was not Puerto-Rican you know!

This “Wicked” version is yet another case of questionable “Hollyweird” casting choices dating back to the big screen musical adaptations of “The Phantom of the Opera” (2004) (Gerald Butler can’t sing) and changing the identity of the character, Anybodys (Iris Mensas), as being transgendered who was nowhere to be seen let alone suggested in the 1961 Robert Wise classic that won 10 Oscars. (Steven Spielberg’s wokeism 2021 remake flopped at the box office).

I didn’t learn the trailer for “Twisters”, an unnecessary sequel to the 1996 blockbuster that starred Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton had aired during the Super Bowl until the day after.



In short, I have one word describing the new trailer. “REMAKE!” Much the way “Top Gun: Maverick” (2022) was a needless money grabbing remake of “Top Gun” (1986). Nothing changed! I predict the one surprise to happen in the “Twister” sequel is Helen Hunt will make a cameo appearance since actors Paxton and Philip Seymour Hoffman are no longer with us.

The one politically incorrect trailer that did catch my attention is the one I didn’t see until Tuesday night this week. Yes! You guessed it! Those of you paying any attention! “Deadpool 3” which as of Feb. 13 has drawn 365 million views online.



Don’t waste time telling me the trailer will finally change “Woke” Disney’s way the studio promotes their bleeding heart “Hollyweird” liberal agenda at the “Marvel Cinematic Universe” pushing personal politics on audiences when all viewers really want is a good movie. To date, I can’t remember when Disney EVER made a good Marvel movie that was worth seeing more than once!

At least the Ryan Reynolds trailer had me laughing within seconds watching it on YouTube (“Pegging isn’t new for me friendo but it is for Disney.”)

More of that “political incorrectness” was what would have caught my attention Super Bowl Sunday. Even despite my being more involved with classwork, nothing happened on the field between the San Francisco 49ers and the Kansas City Chiefs that made me pause what I was doing.

I started channel surfing within the first hour doing what I normally do when I have the flatscreen on. Something to listen to while I’m doing something else. If I hadn’t been doing classwork, I would have been writing this blog or building a LEGO set during the Super Bowl.

Instead of waiting to see if singer Taylor Swift would make a grand entrance during those four hours or find out if I really have heard a song by Rhythm & Blues singer, Usher, over the years during his halftime performance, I wondered why Kansas City Chiefs player Travis Kelcie was yelling at his coach Andy Reid in a clip I saw the next day.



I found the football tight end’s behavior to be the equivalent of actor Will Smith slapping comedian Chris Rock on stage at the 94th Academy Awards in 2022.

Although Travis Kelcie did apologize on a post-Super Bowl episode Sunday night speaking with brother, Jason, on a "New Heights" podcast, I believe the only reason Travis apologized was because of the fake news media attention.

“People are all over this (incident with Reid), and I mean – I get it,” Travis told his brother, Jason. “I immediately wished I took it back.”

The only question that came to mind upon learning the next day the Chiefs won their third Super Bowl, in this case two years in a row, was what the hell is the Kansas City team doing that made them win again this year that the Dallas Cowboys haven’t been able to do in close to three decades.

The last time “God’s favorite team” won a Super Bowl was in 1996.

I’m sure every diehard Dallas Cowboys fan reading this will tell me the reason they haven’t won a Super Bowl has absolutely nothing to do with owner Jerry Jones.

©2/14/24

A night that will live in infamy!

Feb. 4, 2024, was a night that will live in infamy. The same kind of infamy that Feb. 1, 2015, was when I told the world, or those one or two people who follow my blog besides myself that was the first time I watched the Super Bowl.

Or June 13, 2012, when I told the world I still don’t know who shot fictional Texas oil tycoon J.R. Ewing actor Larry Hagman played on "Dallas" (1978-1991) (2012-2014). Someone on my “Fakebook” page told me to “Please turn in my man card right now."

On Feb. 4, 2024, I did something I never thought I’d do so long as live. I not only listened to and watched a music video by one of the artists who won a Grammy that night for Record of the Year on youtube but the popstar I watched perform was Miley Cyrus.

“Who had to come here after Miley won the Grammy for this song, just cuz it is so freaking amazing?!?!” wrote a user on Miley Cyrus’ youtube channel. (Sorry it wasn’t me who posted that!)

I already envision the backlash coming…from guys no doubt who are too afraid to admit their own shortcomings. (The older I get the less I give a rat’s ass what people think).

They’ll probably tell me, “Miley Cyrus?!?!?!? You couldn’t have at least listened to Taylor Swift’s album, “Midnight” which won Album of the Year or Billie Eilish who won Song of the Year?”

For the record I have heard a few songs since the mid-2000s by Taylor Swift, more than I care to admit (“You Need to Calm Down”, “Shake It Off”, “You Belong With Me”, “Bad Blood”) two decades before she made the front cover of Time’s Person of the Year in 2023 because hey, with all the crap going on in the country and the world right now, we could use someone to take our minds off all this misery, right?

I’ve also heard of Billie Eilish thanks to her winning an Oscar in 2022. But for what song I don’t know. And before you start saying how I should know this useless information I’m going to take the liberty (since this is MY blog) and throw the egg back in your face and ask, “Do you not only know what singer won an Oscar but for what song and movie without finding the answer on the net? The Beatles, Stevie Wonder, Carly Simon, Lionel Ritchie?

Yeah! Thought so!

Like this Sunday’s Super Bowl LVIII who I didn’t learn who is playing until a week before, I was as ignorant in uselessly trivial knowledge on Miley Cyrus’ attention getting background short of her knowing she starred in “Woke” Disney’s "Hannah Montana" (2006-2011).

Prior to watching Cyrus’ music video “Flowers” I had heard tidbits the past year about how the song came about detailing her supposed disastrous marriage to actor Liam Hemsworth but paid less than zero attention to what the morning entertainment shows supposed attractive looking talking heads on “The Today Show” and “Good Morning America” discussed in their “nothing burger” segments.

Up until watching “Flowers” I saw the song as just another attempt by Miley Cyrus, who like Madonna, to draw attention to herself in hopes of making herself still seem relevant.

Her “I don’t think I’ve forgotten anyone, but I might’ve forgotten underwear,” comment at the Grammys during her Feb. 4 acceptance speech comes to mind.



I won’t lie and say the video didn’t catch my attention as she danced in a golden dress and heels on her way up the driveway to her home. Then slipping the dress off down to her black bra and panties (it looked nothing like a bikini) strutting through the grass with the sprinklers on before jumping in the pool for a brief swim. Then doing some yoga exercises showing off her “I am woman, hear me roar” persona which wasn’t far from the truth since Grammys night in terms of who won could be called “Woman Power.”

Seeing all those tattoos on her body I said to myself, well the 31-year-old singer/actress is sure not daddy Billy Ray Cyrus’ little girl anymore from “Hannah Montana.”

Believe it or not I could see where she came from in terms of bad relationships reading the lyrics. As someone who every once in a blue moon does want some female companionship I am just as happy being alone 1000 percent of the time. I’ve got plenty of hobbies and things to occupy my “me time” – so much that I don’t think I will get to finishing all of them before I leave this world both literally and physically to become one with “The Dark Side of the Force” when my time here on Earth is done.

Watching Cyrus dance with no one around was equivalent to the happy dance I did back in November busting out moves like Les Grossman – the bald quick tempered movie producer Tom Cruise played in “Tropic Thunder” (2008) when I heard “Woke” Disney’s “The Marvels” had its worst box office opening for a Marvel movie to date. (I HATE MARVEL MOVIES)!

I liked “Flowers”! There I said it! I’ve watched the music video a few times on YouTube since 2/4 (no it’s not because I liked Cyrus showing off a lot of skin working out and showering). Even as I write this blog I still cannot get the lyrics out of my head.

Rest assured one of these days if time ever allows, I will add "Flowers" to my growing list of iTunes music to listen to while doing something else. (yet another project on my to-do list I may never get to). If there is any reason why I won’t is since it only takes me less than 15 minutes to get to work and all I do is drive to work and home five days a week, I see no reason to hook up my iPhone to the auxiliary port in my car to jam to my music choices. The port doesn’t work anyway.

I suppose I could have the radio tuned in to one of those pop music stations while driving instead of on WBAP 820 for news and commentaries or KEOM 88.5 for easy listening oldies songs. The trouble is I wasn’t born with patience and having to wade through a lot songs I’ve not heard of on those pop stations in hopes they will play “Flowers” for a little over three minutes airtime won’t be worth it.

Even less will be how when listening to the “Flowers” lyrics I may wind up yelling at the top of my lungs in the car like Cyrus did at the Grammys telling drivers “Why you acting like you don’t know this song” which some irate driver will mistake my actions as starting a road rage incident that will make the evening news.

I’m not ashamed to admit I liked a Miley Cyrus song. That’s more than I can say for all the guys who are clearly not man enough to admit they watched “Barbie (2023)” and liked the movie, which to date, I still haven’t finished watching.

©2/7/24

My first time Super Bowl viewing experience

Feb. 1, 2015 was a day that will live in infamy.

For the first time in my life I did what everyone else does on a certain night that concludes the NFL football season.

I got to watch Super Bowl XLIX (49). (Ok I admit it there was nothing else on). The last time I got this excited about a Super Bowl game was back in the days when I worked for Blockbuster Video’s IT helpdesk and the weekend night supervisor gave us all a chance to make our score predictions. 

I pulled my predictions out of my ass and somehow I won. My reward? I could go home to watch the remainder of the Super Bowl instead of working my 5 p.m. to 6 a.m. shift.

Of course I didn’t watch the game when I got home. I was just happy I didn’t have to work.

As for Super Bowl 49's New England Patriots 28-24 win over the Seattle Seahawks my first time watching the game was…BORING!

Within the first hour, I texted my best friend, Mr. Fucker in Chiraq (once known as Chicago) typing “This is what you people get your nads all pumped about? So far, I’m fucking bored! No memorable ads either!”

Mr. Fucker texted me back saying, “I agree. Boring. But chicken wings r good.”

I didn’t have wings that night. Instead I devoured a small Papa Johns pepperoni-mushroom pizza with extra sauce minutes after one of the teams scored 7 (sorry I don’t remember who which goes to show you how much I was actually paying attention) against the other. If I was on edge about anything it was the heartburn I was going to get later that night as I never learn my lesson when it comes to certain foods affecting my health.

The only reason I watched the Super Bowl was to see the supposed entertaining if not controversial or gross ads that air in between the game. I was eager to know that for the first time I would finally know what the drive-by fake news media would be talking about on the morning shows Monday instead of having to play catch-up on youtube to see the best and worst commercials I missed the night before.

I was disappointed. There were no sexy GoDaddy ads featuring NASCAR racer Danica Patrick and fitness trainer Jillian Michaels. In fact, some of the ads that year were not only politically correct (again no sexy GoDaddy ads demeaning women as sex objects) but were depressing. I thought the whole point of watching the Super Bowl was to be entertained? So why did I see ads about domestic violence or a dying kid who dreams about the things he will never get to do in life like being kissed by a girl for the first time or learning to fly?

The only bright spot to Super Bowl 49 was the halftime show, which was seen by 118.5 million viewers where singer Katy Perry made her grand entrance riding a top a slow-moving mechanical tiger. If that lion and those lumbering Imperial snow walkers from "The Empire Strikes Back" (1980) competed in a race I’d have no idea who’d win.

As for Perry’s performance, to rephrase her hit song, “I Kissed a Girl”, I am not ashamed to say that “I knew all of Katy Perry’s songs and liked them.” I wonder if she has a greatest hits CD out so I can sing along in my car like that Dover police officer I saw on youtube singing Taylor Swift’s "Shake It Off" on the dashcam back then.

I concluded Super Bowl 49 was the equivalent of the Oscars, except more viewers watch. 

Up until Feb. 1, 2015 I only knew I could happily go to my grave one day knowing that “I am the only guy who can handle something like this” (like dying) when people search my name on youtube and find that Oscar nominee Michael Keaton plays me in the movie "Clear History" (2013).

Hell, up until I posted this blog I was about as clueless as to who is playing in this year's Super Bowl as I was wondering if there was ever a single song by Rhythm & Blues singer Usher (who is this year's halftime show performer) I heard on the radio. 

To date I now know what teams are playing (San Francisco 49ers vs. Kansas City Chiefs). And I still don't know if I've heard any songs by Usher in my lifetime, nor have I bothered scouring youtube to find out.

Yes, I'll likely have Super Bowl LVIII playing on the flatscreen Feb. 11, 2024 but only to have something to listen to while doing something else. 

Perhaps sometime during those four hours whether it's preparing the current week's blog if time allows and, provided I have a subject I want to write about or work on my online class assignments which as of this writing are about two weeks late, I'll find out if Taylor Swift will arrive on time from her Tokyo concert to cheer on her beau Kansas City Chiefs Travis Kelcie during the game.

If not, in between a possible ad paying tribute to actor Carl Weathers who died Feb. 1 at 76, there's always the less-than-one-minute upcoming movie trailers to look forward to. 

Here's hoping those trailers are nothing like last year's "The Flash" and "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" both of which I stupidly thought evoked promise only to crash and burn at the box office last summer.

©2/7/24

Celebrating Beatlemania 60 years on

I have often heard that if you sing to yourself, it means you are happy. I don’t know exactly if that’s true but for the past few weeks now I have found myself trapped inside a Yellow Submarine singing to myself songs from The Beatles.

At times I was off either searching for “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” or taking that “Magical Mystery Tour.” Sometimes, I’d feel like I want a “Revolution.” When having H & R Block do my taxes, I couldn’t get the lyrics to “Taxman” out of my head.

There is a reason for this. While Americans every year look back on “Yesterday” recalling such somber anniversaries as 9/11, Pearl Harbor, Oklahoma City, the Newtown and Aurora Massacres, the Titanic disaster and most recently, the JFK Assassination, finally there is an actual event that is worth celebrating: the 60th Anniversary of The Beatles coming to America that began with their arrival in New York in Feb. 7, 1964. On Feb. 9, "The Fab Four" made their first US television debut on "The Ed Sullivan Show" which drew 73 million viewers.

I am not going to waste newsprint regurgitating the past. You want to read about The Fab Four’s arrival in America, read Rolling Stone. I wasn’t born in the early 50s, so I don’t know what it was like to go through a traumatizing event as President Kennedy’s assassination in November 1963 and yearning for something, anything positive to look forward to a mere three months later with the arrival of four British mop tops from Liverpool.

Instead of paying attention to the documentaries that might air this month about The Beatles, I'll do what I've done so many times before - celebrate in my own way watching the band’s movie debut in "A Hard Day’s Night" (1964) which was both a clever mixture of British comedy and documentary.



I was amazed watching these four mop tops acting so naturally in front of the camera without making their performances look like they needed coaching.

There is John; the practical joker and smart aleck who often calls his manager (Norman Rossington) a swine. The minute he finds out the train station is swarming with girls Lennon asks jokingly if he can perform surgery.

Paul is the polite one who answers all questions reporters ask him with either the comments, “I like to keep Britain tidy” or “Actually, we’re just good friends.”

George, on the other hand is the opinionated one; always speaking his mind in situations even when he is not solely involved in a project.

Finally, Ringo: the sensitive one who gets the most fan mail and hates it when other people touch his drums.

To my surprise I wasn’t too far off in describing their characteristics. According to IMDB.com, writer Alun Owen created their stereotypes saying, “John Lennon is a smart-ass, Paul McCartney is cute and sensible, George Harrison is quiet and shy, and Ringo Starr is dim-witted and sad.”

The story is like a day in the life of a classic rock band as The Beatles prepare for a television concert where the audience consists of no one but giddy schoolgirls (not a single male member of the audience can be spotted).

The picture, shot entirely in black and white, not only spawned a half-hour rock and roll sitcom two years later on NBC called "The Monkees" (1966-1968), but made it possible for future filmmakers to create imaginative music videos for other successful bands and recording artists.

Prior to the performance, the band frequent nightclubs where their number one hits like "All My Loving" and "I Wanna Be Your Man" are played and run around in open fields like kids.

Watching the group smile and sing over the loud cries and cheers of adoring fans in that packed, small auditorium, I can understand why The Beatles didn’t perform that many concerts in the United States. They wanted the audience to hear their voices over all the commotion.

This is where the real joy of "A Hard Day’s Night" comes in though; hearing the soundtrack that includes along with the film’s title song, "Can’t Buy Me Love", "If I Fell", "Tell Me Why", "She Loves You", and "I’ll Cry Instead". They are songs that one friend of mine, Greg Hehn, called “feel good hits.” Songs you can dance to, he said, but they are lyrics with not much meaning.

Hehn said he thought the band’s later works he heard on "Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band" (1967), "Abbey Road" (1969) and "Let It Be" (1970) were some of their best and showed how much the group matured.

Those hit albums though came a few years later when the four were no longer the handsome, innocent looking, clean cut gentlemen from Liverpool you see in this film. As they got older and their hair grew longer, the outfits changed, and so did their attitudes.

The rest is history as the band’s personal and creative differences would eventually cause their break-up in 1970.

Seeing them run freely throughout England’s yards and kidding around with each other in this movie, however, I got the notion back in The Fab Four’s early days that being a Beatle was as much a joy for them as it was for the fans who embraced their music 60 years ago this month.

©1/19/24

I’m all in for putting a “badass” Republican woman in the White House…EXCEPT…

Minutes after former U.S. ambassador and South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley announced her run for president Feb. 14, 2023, I did what I continue to believe to this day not a single voter or very few voters actually do when choosing a president.

I went to Haley’s website to see what qualifications and accomplishments she did as governor of South Carolina. I can’t tell you how disappointed I was when the only thing I saw posted on her site that day was her announcing her candidacy. Perhaps it’s just me but if I were to announce I’m running for president the first thing I’d do is post my accomplishments and qualifications and why I feel I am the right person for the job.

Isn’t that what any person applying for a job would do in the real world today?

To be fair, Haley’s site did post her accomplishments days later, but I didn’t wait until then to read them.

I instead went to her Facebook page on social media to see what others were posting about her record and presidential plans.

I can’t say I read anything positive social media users posted on her site that jumped out at me. The one act I recall Haley did as governor of South Carolina was anything but positive regardless of who you ask. The measure happened July 9, 2015, when she signed into law to remove the Confederate flag from the state capitol after flying there for 54 years.



There’s only one reason why she signed that bill into law. It was because three weeks prior 21-year-old Dylann Roof opened fire killing nine African Americans June 17 at a prayer meeting at Emanuel African Methodist Church and suddenly she felt the state let alone the country had a race problem.

In an October 2015 blog I wrote “A sick individual cold-bloodedly murders minorities in hopes of starting a race war and now South Carolina and the rest of the country have a change of heart? If such supposed historical symbols of the Civil War had been taken down years earlier, would have that kept Roof’s shooting rampage from happening? I doubt that about as much as I doubt more stringent gun control laws would stop mass shootings from happening.”

To date, mass shootings across the country have not stopped. They’ve instead become common place like this is how it’s supposed to be.

I believe and still do believe the only reason Haley signed that bill into law is to secure more votes from black Americans much the way the reason President Biden and his administration won’t do shit about the border crisis is to get more votes for the Democratic Party from the illegal dregs of society who have no desire to start a better life here. They just want the free benefits us taxpayers pay and a chance to either wreak terrorism and/or kill a few law-abiding Americans over money or who knows what.

When I asked a friend and South Carolina native if then Governor Haley did anything positive or negative for that matter during her term in office, she replied texting, “I don’t want to discuss that right now out of fear I won’t get a goodnight sleep.”

Hours before the third Republican Presidential debate on Nov. 8 I heard political commentator Mark Levin discuss Haley’s record on his radio show. He had nothing positive to say either.

“Nikki Haley is running for president as a China hawk, but her record suggests a different picture. I've been warning you about Nikki Haley now for a while, as I have about Ramaswamy. But Nikki Haley is George W. Bush in a dress. Eight years in South Carolina, she's not running on her record because she doesn't have much of a record. DeSantis runs on his record. And Nikki Haley runs attacking Trump. She took a job from Trump as the UN's ambassador. She appreciated that. Mike Pompeo writes in his book, effectively and essentially, that she was a political climber, not a team player, and you can see that.

She is the establishment's candidate. That's who they (her supporters) have now rallied around. She's the candidate of many of these RINO billionaires in the Republican Party. That's who they're rallying behind because they love the Bush dynasty. They never supported Reagan.

She was not a great governor. Nobody's told me to say this. I'm not coordinating with anybody -- I look at the records. And there's a dearth of information about all her great and profound accomplishments.”

Up until the three presidential debates last October and November, I had hope that maybe given Haley’s “record” so to speak as U.S. ambassador and supposed experience in world affairs that if she weren’t to get the presidential nomination that she might make a good vice president. Of course, everyone thought the same thing about Kamala Harris and how her being the first black woman vice president marked a step forward for this country. I don’t need to tell you the results of her tenure so far.

When Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who I call a “Mini-Trump” in terms of stirring up train wrecks at the three debates, called Haley out Nov. 8 citing her daughter’s use of TikTok, a Chinese-based company considering how much she has spoken out against China, I saw nothing wrong with Ramaswamy’s accusation.



“In the last debate, she (Haley) made fun of me for actually joining TikTok while her own daughter was actually using the app for a long time,” Ramaswamy said. “So, you might want to take care of your family first.”

That was nothing compared to when Ramaswamy challenged Haley to name the three Russian provinces during the fourth debate Dec. 7 she’d send American troops to, should they be needed to help Ukraine.



All audiences and I got was a blank stare from Haley on television.

“Foreign policy experience is not the same as foreign policy wisdom,” Ramaswamy said. “One thing that Joe Biden and Nikki Haley have in common is that neither of them could even state for you three provinces in eastern Ukraine that they want to send our troops to actually fight for.”

Again, it’s probably just me but if I were actively serving in the military and still years away from retirement (Haley’s husband Michael serves in the South Carolina Army National Guard and was just deployed to Africa in Dec. 2023 through 2024) I’d want to know where my president plans to possibly send me and or my fellow soldiers in other military branches to risk my life and others to fight in a foreign country’s war no one really wants any part of.



Then there’s her answer she gave on what the reason for the Civil War which was an easy question if I ever heard one and I never paid attention to all the specifics of that era, not even in history class in high school. Even President Biden said was the reason the Civil War happened “was about slavery.”

I do, however, give Haley credit. She, like every other Republican candidate we’ve had in 2023 who put their hat into the presidential ring knows how to energize her fan base telling them what they want to hear.

When she told supporters Feb. 14 last year how she doesn’t “put up with bullies and when you kick back, it hurts them more if you’re wearing heels” I admit the comment turned me on.

Like Jack Nicholson’s Col. Nathan R. Jessup in “A Few Good Men” (1992) said “There is nothing on this earth sexier than a woman you have to salute in the morning. Promote ‘em all,” I too, believe there isn’t anything sexier than seeing a woman in charge. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wished the police officer pulling me over for speeding since I’ve been driving at age 16 was a woman.

I’m not just saying this to score brownie points with the opposite sex!

I had to do a double take when I saw supporters (women of course) holding signs showing Haley in heels stepping on President Biden’s head at that rally last February. Talk about “I am woman, hear be roar.” I thought that Helen Reddy song only applied to first lady Hillary Clinton when she ran for president against former President Donald Trump in 2016.

Seeing Haley and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis square off at the CNN republican debate Jan. 10 days before the Iowa caucuses Jan. 15 I found it to be nothing more than a two-hour he said/she said quarrel. I was only able to stomach an hour of the debate on youtube and I still can’t figure out who really won, much less tell who got the most applause.



What I felt like doing was rewatch the debate from the beginning so I could count how many times Haley told the audience to pull up desantislies.com to dispel all the myths her opponent accused her of. Then I could compare Haley’s website comment to how many times Julia Roberts says “fuck” in Netflix’s apocalyptic disaster movie, “Leave the World Behind” (2023). I’ve a feeling Haley would win.

Don’t get me wrong. I would desperately love to see a Republican woman in heels (five inch if you ask Haley) who not only wears them unless she can run in them and doesn’t see them as a fashion statement, but for ammunition take over 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue next Jan. This versus the possibility of the country seeing another Trump presidency the next four years. I didn’t vote for Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020 despite those few who know me personally think. Yet I still supported Trump because he ran the country like a business and was not considered a part of the Washington elite.

I would not be surprised if Haley were to read my blog here, she’d say the same thing she told DeSantis and Ramaswamy at the Dec. 5 debate. “I love all the attention, Darth Stumpo – thank you for that,” she’d tell me.

Watching the debates the past three months, I’ve hoped to see a “Reagan moment” come out of those debates – someone who can get me excited about the 2024 presidential race instead of having the ghost of Donald Trump hanging over the candidates where the real attention is on the elephant nowhere in sight.

I fear this country is over four decades long past that with who we got running today (that applies to both sides of the aisles – left and right) except on the Democratic side, the leadership is three times worse.

In January 2012, I wrote in a blog how there is no such thing as the perfect candidate. I don’t believe there ever was since George Washington became the country’s first president. Back then I wrote I had no idea who I’d vote for come election day that November.

I wrote “as much as it pains me to say it, whoever it is I vote for my decision will be based on who I think can do the job as leader of the country and not so much on their negative past, despite my wish that there was someone out there has some moral character to be president.”

I want a woman president who not only exhibits style but substance. Haley’s got a lot of style and not enough of the other if that.

Nikki Haley, Ron Desantis, Vivek Ramaswamy (who is still in the presidential race but will no doubt back out soon) and former President Trump are all prime examples of those who are from being the perfect candidates. I’d rather, however, be for the devil you know than the devil you don’t know, in this case as much as it pains me to say it, be for Trump if he is chosen at the Republican National Convention in Wisconsin in July this year.

I’ve no doubt sometime before I leave this world both physically and mentally and have my ashes sent off into space and become one with the “Dark Side of the Force” that this country will have a Republican woman president in five-inch heels running the White House. We’ve got women governors on both sides of the aisles (Kathy Hochul, Kristi Noem, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Gretchen Whitmer) a lieutenant governor of Virginia (Winsome Sears) and women mayors here in the states and prominent women leaders in other countries. Why not add the USA to that list so long as she isn’t a Democrat.

I won’t say I am about to join Sen. Rand Paul’s “Never Nikki” campaign he started Jan. 12 urging people to not vote for Haley.

I do want to see America put a “bad ass” woman in the White House one day, a Republican one. Haley is right when she said, “sometimes it takes a woman.” I’m just not sure I’m truly ready or Americans for that matter are ready to call Nikki Haley, Madam President in 2024.

©1/12/24

My thoughts on the 2023 movies I subjected myself to this year

I’ve got good news and bad news on what I thought of the movies I willingly subjected myself to in 2023. First the bad news as it is my blog and I can say and write what I want without the reader’s input whoever they are.

“Barbie” (2023) – A friend of mine from Chi-raq (once called Chicago) went on such a tirade bashing the 1 billion box office hit of the year when I talked to him a few weeks ago I felt like I was having a one-on-one negative conversation with myself. To be fair, when I attempted to watch “Barbie” on Max Dec. 15 I fell asleep ten minutes into the film. My dozing off had nothing to do with the overhyped toy doll movie boring me however. I was overly tired and may have been coming down with onset flu and/or a sinus infection I usually get at this time of year thanks to the Texas weather. When I got sick at this time last December I found myself breathing heavy that turned out I had COVID…again - second time in two years. Trouble is I watched “Barbie” again the following week and still fell asleep – this time an hour later so now I know my dozing off has nothing to do with my declining health. It's the movie! I’ve no plans to return to “Barbie-Land” (or is it “Ken-Land?”) anytime soon to finish watching it. Not owning roller blades much less know how to roller blade will make it even more difficult getting there which the one billion people who saw “Barbie” say is a place that actually exists.



“Everything Everywhere All at Once” (2022) – Ball gags, butt plugs, dildos, dominatrixes, sex dungeons…oh my! The movie had everything a proud member of the LGBTQ community wants in an Oscar winning movie that embarrassingly won best picture. Fans of the film don’t bother preaching to me how underneath all the sex toys was a meaningfully twisted story about acceptance no matter what one thinks of another’s personal interests let alone the life/predicament an overworked Chinese immigrant and mother (Michelle Yeoh) never imagined themselves in. Unlike everyone else who saw the film I barfed up the picture’s proposed “bagel” twenty minutes into it and like “Barbie” I have no intention returning to that multiverse to finish that “bagel” anytime soon. And people wonder why I no longer call “Tinseltown” Hollywood but “Hollyweird.”



“The Exorcist: Believer” (2023) – Not as bad as “Halloween Ends” (2022) but of course, nowhere near as hauntingly memorable let alone controversial as the original 1973 demonic possessed horror classic. Satan will probably agree with me on this.

“The Flash and Indiana Jones and The Dial of Destiny” (2023) – Should have waited for them to hit the streaming services where I could have saved the money I spent at the box office and at the concessions.

“Godzilla Minus One” (2023) – The 37th movie in the never-dying Godzilla franchise which has grossed $80 million at the box office here in the states so far almost succeeded winning me over with themes about guilt, family loyalty, tragedy – things I’ve never seen in any Godzilla movie to date. Those underlying themes lasted 90 minutes. Too bad the remaining 30 minutes channeled “Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker” (2019), “Jaws” (1975) and “Independence Day” (1996) turning the surprise hit into yet another Hollywood disaster monster movie starring an angry giant blue laser spewing walking lizard or whatever it is our atomic bombs created at the end of World War II.



“Leave the World Behind” (2023) – Took me a few days to finish what I felt like was a proposed and then rejected screenplay for a “Twilight Zone” episode and then expanded into an overlong two-hour apocalyptic disaster movie starring Julia Roberts. Should I watch it again the only reasons may be to bash it in a review and count how many times Julia Roberts says “fuck.” I was so irritated with whatever the film’s message was with its love it or hate it ending I didn’t realize the picture was produced by the Obamas.

“The Marvels” (2023) – As someone who finds Marvel movies “despicable” like director Francis Ford Coppola I won’t lie and say I didn’t do my own little happy dance movie mogul Les Grossman (Tom Cruise) does at the end of “Tropic Thunder” (2008) upon hearing the joyous news that “Woke” Disney’s latest entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, “The Marvels” bombed opening weekend in November. I didn’t listen to the critics, or the warnings from another friend of mine from “Chi-raq” who if he had a social media account he'd list his screenname as “Mr. Fucker”. I had to see “The Marvels” for myself. At least “Suicide Squad” (2016) was a fun bad movie I loved to hate and had The Joker (Jared Leto). “The Marvels” was so bad Disney stopped reporting box office receipts two weeks after its release and the film’s failure cannot be attributed to just one reason.



“Oppenheimer” (2023) – The ONLY two reasons director Christopher Nolan’s three-hour history lesson (if you call that) got so much attention is one, the film’s timeliness considering how close we are to midnight on the Doomsday Clock standing on the brink of World War III with China, Hamas forces, Iran, Russia and every other country President Biden has kissed ass since he turned the USA into his own little “Bizarro Land” in 2020 that not a single country in the world is afraid of America’s might any longer. The other is the controversy surrounding the relationship the father of the atomic bomb (Cillian Murphy) had with his mistress Jean Tatlock (Florence Pugh) in particular the scene where Oppenheimer recites the Hindu text of the Bhagavad-Gita that upset some viewers. The dream sequence where Tatlock and Oppenheimer are having sex as he is being questioned by a senate committee while his wife Katherine (Emily Blunt) looks on would have made director Oliver Stone proud.

“Rebel Moon” (2023) – Netflix’s answer to “Star Wars” in 2023 on the flat screen is equivalent to what ABC tried to do with “Battlestar Galactica” (1978-79) as its answer to “Star Wars” (1977) on Sunday nights 45 years ago. I have no doubt “Nerdville”, “The Big Bang Theory Crowd” and the “Negative Nancys” are sitting around right now having boring intelligent long-winded discussions about director Zack Snyder’s latest sci-fi fantasy epic making comparisons to that other “galaxy far, far away” in between such questions as to who they think would win in a lightsaber battle, Darth Vader or Darth Maul.



I wasn’t thinking about “Star Wars” watching “Rebel Moon”. I was thinking how this overhyped soulless visual exercise about a female soldier (Sofia Boutella), whose world is threatened by another “Galactic Empire” called the “Motherworld”, journeys to other cities and planets to recruit warriors is more a remake of Roger Corman’s produced sci-fi B grade movie “Battle Beyond the Stars” (1980) which was in turn inspired by the 1960 western, “The Magnificent Seven.” I do, however, give Zack Snyder credit. He doesn’t make sci-fi/fantasy movies to please the masses, the critics and the powers-that-be at the studios. If he did he’d still be making Justice League and Superman sequels at what is now called the “DC Universe” at Warner Bros. Pictures. Perhaps Snyder’s R rated three-hour director’s cut of “Rebel Moon” likely due out late next year will feature the one thing missing from the shortened 135-minute release – characters worth rooting for and villains worth loathing.

Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody (2022) – I ask the same question I asked in 2022 when everyone embraced Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis” that failed to sweep the Oscars, including best actor. Where is the joy in watching a predictable biopic about a music icon who lived fast, died young and left a good-looking corpse? To date not a single person has been able to answer that question! It’s not a trick question! Why do they keep failing to give me the answer I’m looking for?

Do I like anything “Hollyweird” makes?

No doubt after reading my assessment of the following titles you will wonder why I waste my time sitting in front of the flatscreen.

God only knows just how many times I’ve asked myself that same question. I rarely see the latest releases at the box office now waiting instead for them to hit the streaming services a month later. And no, my reason for avoiding the movie houses is not because of the pandemic.

With all the excrement I’ve sat through this year along with the past five years or more I’ve gotten to the point maybe it’s time to just leave the flatscreen off for a while and pick up one of the books I’ve got sitting in storage bins that I’ve yet to open and read.

Hence the good news! The bottom line is I haven’t given up on the motion picture industry. I’m just no longer buying what “Hollyweird” is selling. They aren’t movies. They are products.

I’ll stick to the old stuff of yesteryear like the “Airport” disaster movies of the 70s, “Bullitt” (1968), “Forbidden Planet” (1956), “The Great Race” (1965) ,“Logan’s Run” (1976) and “North by Northwest” (1959). Films I’ve seen numerous times the past few decades that I’ve watched again this year on streaming services and countless others that were free of woke agendas (You listening “Woke” Disney?), superheroes from the Marvel and DC franchises whose low box office receipts prove they’ve overstayed their welcome, sequels and remakes no one asked for and predictable gone-too-soon music biopics where I already know how they end.

What’s kept me from boycotting “Hollyweird” completely is hope that one day Tinseltown will return to making movies entertaining again to the point I’m excited to see them on the big or small screen and if they are so good I can't wait to watch them again later.

There are movies I’ve seen over the past ten years that prove “Hollyweird” can make a good movie if they really gave a crap about what audiences want to see. “The Social Network” (2010), “Argo” (2012), “Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice” (2016), “La La Land” (2016) and “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” (2016) proved that…IN MY OPINION! NOT YOURS! Pictures I will review eventually adding to my personal list of the 100 best films I don’t tire of watching on occasion.

I still believe sometime in the coming years before I leave this world both literally and physically (since I want my remains sent off into space) and become one with “The Dark Side of The Force” “Hollyweird” might and I stress the word “might” make a movie that’s worth seeing more than once or to quote Judd Nelson’s foul-mouthed rebellious high school student John Bender from “The Breakfast Club” (1985) (another classic I've seen numerous times) “pumps my nads!”

©12/20/23